G20 meets again after two years
Focus on climate, COVID and the economy
The leaders of the world's 20 largest economies on Saturday approved a global minimum tax to prevent large companies from hiding their profits in tax havens and also agreed to provide more COVID vaccines to poorer countries.
At their first face-to-face summit in two years, G20 leaders broadly backed calls to extend debt relief for impoverished countries and pledged to vaccinate 70% of the world's population against COVID-19 by mid-2022.
However, with a major UN climate change conference about to begin in just two days, the G20 seemed struggling to advocate the kind of powerful new measures that scientists believe are needed to avert catastrophic global warming .
Italy, which is hosting the meeting in Rome, has placed health and business at the top of the agenda for the first day of the meeting, while the more difficult climate debates are scheduled for Sunday.
Doctors in white coats and Red Cross employees stood together with the heads of state and government for the traditional family photo - a tribute to the sacrifices and efforts of medical professionals around the world - and made it clear how much the coronavirus crisis is shaking the world Has.
In his opening speech for the meeting, held in a steel and glass convention center, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said that governments must work together to address the daunting challenges facing their peoples.
"From the pandemic to climate change to fair and equitable taxation - going it alone is not an option," said Draghi.
The corporation tax deal was welcomed as evidence of renewed multilateral coordination. Large corporations will have to pay a minimum 15% tax wherever they operate from 2023 to prevent them from hiding their profits in offshore companies.
"This is more than just a tax treaty - it is diplomacy that is reshaping our global economy and making a difference to our people," wrote US President Joe Biden on Twitter (NYSE: TWTR).
Given soaring energy prices and tight supply chains, Biden is expected to urge G20 energy producers with spare capacity, particularly Russia and Saudi Arabia, to increase their production to ensure a stronger global economic recovery, according to a senior US official -Government.
DAMPENED HOPES
Like many of the other G20 leaders in Italy, Biden will fly direct to Glasgow on Sunday for the United Nations Climate Change Summit (COP26), which is seen as critical to tackling the looming temperature rise.
The G20 bloc, which includes Brazil, China, India, Germany and the United States, is responsible for an estimated 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but hopes that the Rome meeting could pave the way for success in Scotland are clear dwindled.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have both decided to only watch the action via video link, and diplomats, trying to find a meaningful deal, said both countries, as well as India, are opposed to ambitious new climate targets.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted that G20 and COP26 talks would be difficult, but warned that without bold action, world civilization could collapse as quickly as the ancient Roman Empire and usher in a new dark age.
"It will be very, very difficult to reach the necessary deal," he told reporters as he stood beside the ruins of the Colosseum amphitheater - a symbol of once mighty Rome.
CLIMATE EFFORTS
A draft communiqué available to Reuters says the G20 will step up efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius - the level scientists say is necessary to catastrophic new climate patterns avoid.
The document also acknowledges that current national pollution control plans need to be strengthened, but hardly gives details on how to do this.
In addition, the heads of state and government pledge to end the financing of coal-fired power generation abroad by the end of this year and to "do our best" to stop the construction of new coal-fired power plants by the end of the 2030s.
The heads of state and government, after months of relative isolation, obviously took a liking to the personal diplomat